The Downton Heritage Site
by theMatthewReview
Summary: Downton Abbey has long since been turned over to the British Heritage Trust as an example of a small, once working estate. It occasionally opens for tours, six times a year. A tour guide in the midst of her scripts is asked about what was known of Matthew and Mary's romance, since monuments to the two strongly suggest a strong bond.
1. Chapter 1

_April, 1997  
__  
Downton Heritage Site, Yorkshire_

'…. The cottages were renovated just before and just after the First World War. Here, again, you see the influence of Matthew Crawley. As a result of this, the working tenant farmers were able to stay until the forties. Matthew consolidated two of the farms and paid for the elderly tenants to be taken to York for medical care and a comfortable retirement. Those united parcels of land were planted, crops were rotated, and produced the most profit for the estate, even long after Matthew's death. You'll see them over there; we now grow all the wheat we use for flour and keep bees nearby.

'Next we will go see Dame Isobel Crawley's flower garden. Dame Isobel received her CBE in 1925; that would have tickled Lady Violet had she lived to see it. Dame Isobel remained at Crawley House until her death in 1952, and maintained the garden she had planted in memory of her son for as long as she was able. The flowers now bloom as a memorial to both mother and son, and now the York Horticultural Society volunteer to tend it.'

'Notice the large stepping stones with animal faces on them? Dame Isobel put those in to delight her grandson, George, who grew up to become the last Earl of Grantham. Of course these kept the boy from stepping on any of the garden plots. But, of course, apart from the flowers, the loveliest spot in the garden is the fountain. The swans represent Matthew and Lady Mary, and the little cygnet, George.'

_'Matthew and Lady Mary must have loved each other very much….'_

_'So beautiful; look how the male broods over his family….'_

'Oh, yes, as far as we know from the surviving letters and the document that became his will, Matthew was deeply devoted to Lady Mary for many years, beginning long before they married. And Lady Mary never married again, though men thought her a great prize. She devoted the rest of her life to George, and when she died, she was laid next to her husband.'

_'Is there a memorial to Lady Mary? After all, she never became Countess and it is all so sad.'_

'The memorial to Lady Mary is so famous, one almost forgets that it is in fact a memorial. Of course you must be aware of the famous sculpture, '_The Lovers' Bench_' by T. Martin Richmond? It was the last Earl, George, that commissioned it, and since the old oak did come down in a storm prior to this, a beech tree was cast along with the bench, and the two figures, Matthew and Mary.'

'_I didn't know that _The Lovers' Bench _was a sculpture of those two! It's so beautiful..._

_'You mean the original is here at the Downton Heritage Site and a copy is at the museum?'_

'You are right, ma'am. Of course, the little pavilion in the back yard where the original sculpture is is not where Matthew Crawley was said to have knelt down and proposed to Lady Mary, but that is his likeness kneeling before her as she sits on the bench and hers smiling into his eyes. Seeing 'the Lovers' Bench' is a highlight of our guided tour, and we will go there before we see the little village, Crawley House and the family plot.'


	2. Chapter 2

2\. 'Mama, tell me about Papa…'

George Matthew Crawley became the last Earl of Grantham during Michaelmas Term 1934 at Eton College. Always painfully shy because so much had been expected of him, he had retreated into his studies and excelled in the natural sciences. A certain practicality in him (almost like that of his father) made him yearn towards the acquisition of veterinary and animal husbandry skills so he could better oversee the livestock on the estate. But George received a telegramme during the first week of November:

_'Dear George - STOP - Grandpapa very ill - STOP - Your Uncle Tom coming to Eton - STOP - Please come home with him - STOP - MAMA'._

When his Uncle Tom arrived to fetch him from school, his headmaster had been informed of an imminent death in the Crawley family and been asked to allow George two weeks back home at Downton. The grave look upon his uncle's face spoke eloquently enough to the boy, and George piped up:

'Uncle Tom! You look so sad. How is my grandfather? What is the matter with him?'

Tom Branson gave George a big hug as he replied.

There's something the matter with his heart, George. He is very weak now, and can't wait that much longer to see you.'

'Oh...' the boy said sadly. 'Will he be going to Heaven soon, like my father and my aunt Sybli?'

'He might, though of course he might get better...' Branson replied, as if to say "I wish you hadn't said that..."

Branson released the child, and looked around to see if he was ready to go.

'Is your case all packed, George?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Do you have everything you need?'

Yes, sir.'

'Then come along, my boy, let's go home and see your grandfather.'

***** ***** *****'

Robert Crawley - whose memorial window in Downton Village Church depicts the Sermon on the Mount and dominates the north apse to this day - suffered the second of two heart attacks and succumbed on a November Friday, scarcely four days after his grandson arrived back home. The funeral was held on the Monday following, and he was laid nearest his mother and father, yet neither far from his daughter, Sybil, nor too much further away from his son-in-law, Matthew. From grave to grave, the surviving Crawleys went to pay their respects after the ground received the blustering but merciful old Earl. The distraught new Dowager, Cora, leaned upon her sister-in-law, Rosamund, and her daughter, Edith, for support. It was Lady Mary Crawley and the new Earl that stood straight and strong, stoic and silent, by the grave of the husband and father that might have filled such big shoes with accustomed dignity, wisdom and grace.

'Mama, do you think Papa would have been as mortified as I am now?' the boy asked.

'What I think, my darling boy, is that your father would have felt a great loss even if he was more than capable of taking the reins,' Lady Mary replied. 'He loved your grandfather dearly.'

'Hmmm... Mama, didn't Papa have a lot of ideas about this place before I was born, before he...'

George stopped in the middle of his thoughts. While he had only been in Matthew's loving embrace once, he was more than aware of how his elders remembered Matthew's benign influence on the whole estate and everyone who lived and worked there. It was because the son so revered the father that the son was so apprehensive about filling the shoes of an earl.

'Your father here…' Mary began, looking at the words 'beloved husband and father' on the gravestone before them as tears welled up in her eyes, '… your Papa, Matthew, wanted to make things work out for the best everywhere here, beginning with whatever was fair and whatever was true. The things we should hope to do now are what your Papa hoped to do in the first place.'

'Then… Mama, tell me more about Papa. Tell me the things he wanted to do.

'I will, of course, my boy… but remember, you won't actually have to shoulder things for six years or so. The decisions will fall to me and your Uncle Tom will be the one to see that things get done.'


	3. Chapter 3

The first of two tour groups had gone into Crawley House, which had kept its decor as it had been in the latter part of Dame Isobel Crawley's life. In the sitting room, with its powder blue damask, furniture scarves, embroidery and a tea service 'which had been in her family for generations and brought with Isobel and Matthew from Manchester', hung all Dame Isobel's certificates and stood a mannequin with her nursing uniform. Four pictures of Dr. Crawley and his little family, up to the time of his death when Matthew was still quite young, stood on the fireplace mantel, as did the two wedding photographs of Isobel and Reginald and Matthew and Mary. Two things in the sitting room had not existed in the great lady's lifetime - one, the scrapbook with newspaper clippings about the two Manchester Crawleys, mostly Isobel. The second was a guestbook with a buttercup yellow satin cover, which tour guests could sign.

'We'll now go see Isobel's room. There are more Turnbull-Crawley family heirlooms in there, as well as a lovely view of a smaller garden from the picture window….'

And indeed this was so.

'This christening outfit was actually passed down on the Crawley side of the family for four generations, and the last two babies to be baptized while wearing it were Matthew and George,' the guide said as she indicated a now yellowed gown with cutwork lace and a little cap and shoes with crosses embroidered upon them. 'We know that the Manchester Crawleys had become non-conformists in the 1800's, sometime before the birth of Reginald, and that the Turnbulls were staunchly so. Both families were dedicated to serving others in the field of medicine…'

The fine practical bedroom furniture was of oak, including a headboard, a wardrobe, a large dresser with a mirror, a smaller one, and a nightstand. The draperies matched the bed covers, and the curtains were lace. Indeed a fine view of the garden could be had, and there grew peonies and hedge roses by the garden wall. An iron bench sat there, too, beneath a hanging vine with a profusion of blossoms.

'Colour photography was in its infancy when Dame Isobel and her son arrived here, but just such a picture of them helped us to determine what actually thrived there, and to plant new flowering vines. You'll see it right there on the dresser, and, of course, no one smiled for photographers back then…'

-0-0-0-0-0-

Meanwhile, in Downton Abbey, one of the curators had just put the finishing touches on a new display in Lady Mary's bedroom. There not only were flowers in the vase by the window, but a picture of Matthew in a gilt frame and two sheets of vellum in a glass case, with a then modern Waterman pen beside them. One, a letter, had an envelope addressed to Mary, and was Matthew's letter of intention that ensured her inheritance of all that was his. The other, written by Lady Mary, had no envelope. Apparently it had been discovered when going through an archive of her papers, and not too long ago…

'My dearest Matthew —

It may be a pique, even a delusion, to write this as if you could read it, and if you could have, my darling, this would have never been written or even thinkable. But now, I miss you more than ever, having realised what a treasure I took for granted in you, your love and your trust. You see, sweetheart, something reckless of me, and of someone else, happened not that long ago. Oh, Matthew, I had been so convinced not only that I should marry for our George's sake, but that I should at least be happy as well, that I went ahead and did something foolish… foolish enough, my love, that I would have needed your forgiveness this time! At least my little experiment was not by any means a true success, but at least part of the fault is mine, I know.

Matthew, I could never, ever have with another all the sweetness, all the wonder and all the joy I have had with you, the memory of which will stay with me forever and which now must be my consolation. Your warmth had thawed me out so much, I was becoming a new and better self, not so selfish. Without you, I have not quite been frozen, but craven, thoughtless, forgetful of 'what God has joined together.' No man has put it asunder, but accosted by a man in apparent needI have dropped my treasures, and scrambled to gather them up before more could be stolen away.

Of course, if you were still here, only joy upon joy could happen, and sorrows shared be diminished by degrees. I miss you, my darling, and now I know I must accept it. No one can replace you, and therefore, no one will. I shall not count on anyone else to fill your place in any way, nor settle for anything less, as it came that close to being. Oh, I am sorry, Matthew, and I love you. Therefore all the material things you have given me that I still have must henceforth be seen as belonging to George. I keep them solely as a trust for him now, as your sweet memory is kept ever more by one who shall always be -

Your Mary.'


End file.
